Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.” (A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King Jr., HarperCollins 1991, pg. 670)

Update: It just hit me (sometimes I'm really slow about such things) that campus-based events Israeli Apartheid Week and Islam Awareness Week both have the same acronym (IAW). That is so...perfect.

Did I "watch"? Did I botch?Did I lead my troop?My UN watchdog doings
Always kept me in the loop.
I was really flakeyThough few thought me unwise.My gormlessness it netted meA Nobel Freakin' Prize.Years go by I'm lookin' through A self-reflecting mirrorAnd the image starin' back at meCould not be any clearer.

CHORUS:

My land has foes.My impatience for Mubarak grows.My patron is the Muslim Bro's.Patron is the Muslim Bro's.My land has foes.My impatience for Mubarak grows.My patron is the Muslim Bro's.Patron is the Muslim Bro's...

I just learned via BCF that a Danish court has acquitted Lars Hedegaard of "hate speech". But I also learned via Tundra Tabloids that he seems to have gotten off on a technicality:

President of the Free Press Society, Lars Hedegaard, in the Court of Frederiksberg acquitted of racist statements.

The background is a good 35 minutes long interview to the site snaphanen.dk which Hedegaard gave in December 2009.

Here, said Hedegaard, among other things, that “girls in Muslim families are raped by their uncles, their cousins or their dad.”

The Court believes that Heath’s statements are insulting, but he was dismissed because he did not know that the interview that took place during a juleforkost, would be published...

Anyone know what a "juleforkost" is?

I await Hedegaard's comments to know exactly how to interpret the ruling. It appears to be a great victory for free speech, but, as in the Levant and Steyn cases in Canada, the trial in and of itself may have the effect of putting a chill on free speech (because who the heck would want to risk being tried for "thought crimes" by a Danish or a Canucki court?).

Many Western analysts have welcomed the demonstrations currently roiling Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East as an outpouring of democratic sentiment against repressive authoritarian rulers – and that they are. But it is no coincidence that Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia leaders and groups are also applauding these demonstrations. They know that if the people truly rule in the Middle East, so will Islamic law (Sharia). For belying the widespread assumption in the West that Islamic supremacists, whether violent or stealthy, represent only a tiny minority of extremists among Muslims, in reality the imperative for Islamic rule (which is also the ultimate goal of jihad terror attacks) enjoys broad popular support among Muslims.

Capiche naifs? It's the sharia. Always has been. Always will be.

And if you don't believe me, check out the aptly named and fore'er in effect Cairo Declaration. (Variation on old riddle: What's black and white and blood red all over? Answer: The Cairo Declaration for Human Rights in Islam.)

The Brotherhood is not an Iranian-style extreme Islamic movement, contrary to alarms being spread by neocons and the often poorly-informed US media.

In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood has long eschewed politics to concentrate on social, religious and educational issues. If anything, it has been ultra-conservative, even stodgy and timid. But it also represents the Washington’s best potential ally if Egypt’s military regime falls. We should not be misled by self-serving warnings about Islamic bogeymen.

Au contraire. The Muslim Brotherhood's raison d'etre has always been the installation of sharia, which, as they see it, is mankind's one and only acceptable--being God's perfect--law. We should not--we should never--allow ourselves to be misled by the likes of Eric Margolis.

"They [the Muslim Brotherhood] don't want to appear as if they're using this revolt to seize power," said Wahid Abdul Magid, an analyst at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "What they want is free and fair elections to allow them to take power transparently. This would show their real popularity in the Egyptian street."

How clever of the Muslim Brotherhood to set up as its straw man Mohamed ElBaradei, a mediocre hack, but one with international lustre due to his stint as head UN nuclear watchdog. Can anyone doubt that once Mo is in office, the Bro's will eat him up and spit him out, finally acquiring the power for which it has lusted so long and so patiently?

Here we have Israel as an internationally recognized thug, keeper of the largest open-air prison on earth, regularly practicing war crimes against civilians, targeting civilian infrastructure and continuously disregarding the Geneva Conventions – virtually unanimously denounced by the international community, by every human rights watch group on the globe, and by international civil society for the last many decades1 – and how do Canadian politicians and parliamentarians respond?

Israel, the modern state that shamelessly uses the Nazi holocaust to justify overtly racist domestic and foreign national policies, stockpiles nuclear weapons, incites wars on its neighbours, overtly funds propaganda in foreign countries, routinely practices international pirating, kidnappings and murders, openly performs political assassinations 1 … and how do Canadian politicians and parliamentarians respond?

Israel has no significant economic exchanges with Canada and performs no significant geopolitical service of benefit to Canada; a Canada with virtually no economic ties with the Middle East and a Canada that is a net exporter of oil and gas.

Yet, apart from the independent-thinking Bloc Quebecois, it seems that half the time that English-Canadian politicians open their mouths it’s to denounce a “new anti-Semitism” that social scientists and statisticians tell us is a media fabrication or to express Israel’s “right to defend itself” or to declare Canada’s “unwavering support for Israel.” Not to mention Israel’s “right to exist”! 2

What about unwavering support for human rights and international law?...

Yeah, what about it? Anyone who's not heeding "human rights" and "international law" as purveyed by the UN and its largest voting bloc, the OIC, is out of sync with the Allahu Akbar choir. (Take that as a warning, Stephen "Jew-Lover" Harper.)

About a hundred parents waited in line outside the Calgary Islamic School on Friday morning for a chance to get their children enrolled.

The private school — which teaches kindergarten to Grade 11 — has room for about 20 new students next year, officials said.

But since it's the only school of its kind in Calgary, which has a Muslim population of about 60,000 people, parents line up outside in the cold for a chance to register every year, said principal Moussa Ouarou.

He added that the waiting list already has 300 names on it.

The high demand demonstrates that the province should approve the creation of more Muslim schools, he added.

The school, which is located at 26th Street and 37 Avenue N.E., teaches the regular provincial curriculum in addition to Arabic language courses, Islamic studies and Qur'an recitation and memorization.

If you go solely by the Toronto Star, it was attended by "pro-democracy" Egyptians who are fed up with Egypt's dictator. If you want the real story (and not the sanitized version) you'll have to read BCF.

What is happening in Egypt? Joe Biden, whose record for imbecility is unblemished, chalked up another victory a few days ago when he assured us that Hosni Mubarak was “not a dictator.” He looks like a dictator. He certainly acts like a dictator. Nevertheless, Biden, in what Fox News called “the Obama administration’s most definitive statement to date” (January 28), said that Mubarak should not step down.

He might be right.

The “unrest” (a polite word for “riots”) we are seeing in Egypt is certainly “popular” unrest. We are supposed to be in favor of unrest when it is “popular,” aren’t we?

Again, I would suggest that we take a look at the nature and composition of the populace before offering a definitive opinion about that. Ponder this headline from The New York Times: “Iran Sees Rise of Islamic Hard-Liners.”

An unhappy truth: in this imperfect world, we are often faced with a choice between something bad and something worse.

That "something worse" refers, of course, to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's unofficial official opposition, currently waiting patiently to seize the moment should it become opportune.

Those three words--emphasis on HUSSEIN--appear on the poster advertising "Islam Awareness Week" at the University of Toronto. And now that the Muslim Student Association, a Muslim Brotherhood creation, has your attention, here's the da'wa, er, "awareness" it plans to bring to the table (h/t MK):

When you hear the words Islam or Muslim what do you think? Religion? Oppression of women? September 11? Immigrants? Clash of Civilizations?

Whatever your thoughts are, Islam is often at the forefront in our news, our discussions and in our politics. On Feb 7-11 find out what Islam is really about and learn about the impact Muslims have had in North America for many centuries.

What is Sharia?
Sharia is often seen as a threat to western society and a gross violation of human rights. This is your chance to see what Sharia is all about and to discuss what Sharia means in North America.
Lecture by Dr. Mohammad Fadel, Faculty of Law University of Toronto.
Date: Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: East Common Room, Hart House (7 Hart House Circle)
______________________________________________________________

Keynote Event: Islam in North America
Islam is often seen as a foreign entity in North America, something that doesn't belong or has not made substaintial contributions to our current society. Find out the relationship of Islam in North America at our Keynote event
Panel discussion with
Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, Head of Islamic History and Homiletics Department, Al Maghrib Institute
Dr. Katherine Bullock, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto Mississauga
Date: Wed, February 09, 2011
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: Bahen Centre Rm 1160 (40 St George street)___________________________________________________________

Inside Islam: What a billion Muslims really think
A new documentary film explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll on the subject, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization. For more info visit: http://www.upf.tv/films-menu/inside-islam-menu.html
Date: Thursday February 10, 2011
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Sidney Smith Rm 1085 (100 St George St.)
Followed by a discussion

I was confused about where Barack HUSSEIN Obama came into it until I clicked on the link and found him included in a bunch of testimonials from famous kafirs:

“America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”- Barack Obama, President of the United States of America

“Islam is a religion of success. Unlike Christianity, which has as its main image, in the west at least, a man dying in a devastating, disgraceful, helpless death.”- Karen Armstrong, Writer

“I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission.”- Mahatma Ghandi, Lawyer and Activist

“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white, but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all together, irrespective of their color.”- Malcolm X, Activist

“My aim is to show that those governments that violate the rights of people by invoking the name of Islam have been misusing Islam.”- Shirin Ebadi, Activist and Nobel Laureate

Wow, Islam sounds appealing and fun. Thanks, Muslim Brotherhood, for couching sharia in such a warm 'n' fuzzy--and, most crucially, such a non-threatening--way. Fingers crossed you get a few "reverts" and plenty of young apologists out of the deal. (That was withering sarcasm, in case you were wondering.)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has called on political leaders in Egypt to follow the “rightful demands” of their people.

“Iran expects Egyptian officials to listen to the voice of their Muslim people, respond to their rightful demands and refrain from exerting violence by security forces and police against an Islamic wave of awareness that has spread through the country in form of a popular movement,” Mehmanparast said Saturday.

He further pointed out that Tehran attaches great importance to the fulfillment of public demands in Egypt and added, “Iran regards demonstrations by the Muslim people of this country as a justice-seeking movement in line with their national-religious demands.”...

Of course, when folks were revolting in Ayatollahville, they were rounded up and summarily executed. So so much for Iran's regard for "the Muslim people" and their anti-government demonstrations.

Crunching the pertinent numbers, Barry Rubin concludes that the chances of Egypt's "revolution" resulting in a Western-style liberal democracy (and not an Islamist-helmed sharia state) is the longest of long shots:

In Egypt, 30 percent like Hizballah (66 percent don't). 49 percent are favorable toward Hamas (48 percent are negative); and 20 percent smile (72 percent frown) at al-Qaida. Roughly speaking, one-fifth of Egyptians applaud the most extreme Islamist terrorist group, while around one-third back revolutionary Islamists abroad. This doesn't tell us what proportion of Egyptians want an Islamist government at home, but it is an indicator.

In Egypt, 82 percent want stoning for those who commit adultery; 77 percent would like to see whippings and hands cut off for robbery; and 84 percent favor the death penalty for any Muslim who changes his religion.

Asked if they supported "modernizers" or "Islamists" only 27 percent said modernizers while 59 percent said Islamists:

Is this meaningless? Last December 20 I wrote that these "horrifying figures in Egypt...one day might be cited to explain an Islamist revolution there....What this analysis also shows is that a future Islamist revolution in Egypt and Jordan is quite possible.

Perhaps this is why president John F. Kennedy's inaugural exhortation to Americans, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country" never inspired me. States doing things for individuals and individuals doing things for states seemed two sides of the same coin. A call for individual responsibility, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for yourself!" would have impressed me more.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Compared to other countries, Canada has been less affected by the global surge in anti-Muslim sentiments and by the resulting polarization of ethnic relations. According to a survey conducted by Focus Canada in 2006, 83% of Canadians agree that Muslims make a positive contribution to Canada (Focus Canada 2006). International polls reveal that Muslims in Canada are less likely than Muslims in other countries to believe that their co-citizens are hostile to them. Moreover, Muslims have the same level of pride in Canada as other immigrants, and indeed are more likely than native-born Canadians to believe that the country is moving in the right direction: 91% of Muslims said this, compared to 71% of the general population (Adams 2007).

In October 2008, for example, a delegation of young diplomats from the Middle East (12 Egyptians and two from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and Palestine) came to the National Capital Region to learn about Canada’s approach to diversity and related issues. This delegation was hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the Citizenship and Multiculturalism Branch was asked to deliver a presentation. Along with the Department of Canadian Heritage, CIC presented Canada’s multiculturalism and diversity approach and had an active and engaging discussion with the delegation.

At the auction, UNHCR Syria Representative Renata Dubini thanked the [Canadian] Embassy [in Syria] for its support of the [art] event and recognized Canada’s work in protecting some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

In 2009, Canada plans to resettle 3,900 Iraqi refugees, representing one third of Canada’s global resettlement target. Canada will maintain this level of resettlement until at least 2011, which will mean some 12,000 Iraqi refugees will be resettled over three years.

I had always considered Jason Kenney to be one cabinet minister who "gets it," but after reading this sort of stuff, I'm not so sure.

The protests rocking the Arab world this week have one thread uniting them: Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite channel whose aggressive coverage has helped propel insurgent emotions from one capital to the next.

Al Jazeera has been widely hailed for helping enable the revolt in Tunisia with its galvanizing early reports, even as Western-aligned political factions in Lebanon and the West Bank attacked and burned the channel’s offices and vans this week, accusing it of incitement against them.

In many ways, it is Al Jazeera’s moment — not only because of the role it has played, but also because the channel has helped to shape a narrative of popular rage against oppressive American-backed Arab governments (and against Israel) ever since its founding 15 years ago. That narrative has long been implicit in the channel’s heavy emphasis on Arab suffering and political crisis, its screaming-match talk shows, even its sensational news banners and swelling orchestral accompaniments.

“The notion that there is a common struggle across the Arab world is something Al Jazeera helped create,” said Marc Lynch, a professor of Middle East Studies at George Washington University who has written extensively on the Arab news media. “They did not cause these events, but it’s almost impossible to imagine all this happening without Al Jazeera.” ...

Come on, babe, why don’t we paint the news?And Al that Jaz.We’re gonna praise some ‘rabs And then we’ll slam some JewsAnd Al that Jaz.Start your day with scenes with lots of goreIt’s sure to stir the blood and leave you wantin’ more.But then we’ll say againWe're just like CNNAnd Al that Jaz.

Slick despairAnd Arab victimhood
And Al that Jaz.It's what we have to sell,It's like our Hollywood.And Al that Jaz.Who’s to blame?You know it’s hard to tellIf it’s America or if it’s Is-ra-el.We like to stir the potAnd keep things very hotAnd Al that Jaz...

Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan told jurors Thursday that his wife, Aasiya, was in such denial of her own abusiveness that he once gave her a book containing a quiz to identify abusers.

He suggested she take it privately and come to terms with her true nature.

He made the suggestion kindly, he said.

"I told her, 'You don't have to share the results with me.'"

The man charged in his wife's brutal murder took the stand on the seventh day of trial and spent nearly 4 1/2 hours telling jurors that he was the real victim — the hurt, bullied, vulnerable and broken one.

"Her need for control and domination was just killing me," he said.

He portrayed Aasiya as a selfish, demanding, jealous and rage-fueled woman who would scream, throw things, threaten and hit him whenever he didn't agree with her or give in to her demands.

He portrayed himself as a mild-mannered, reasonable and easygoing man who felt neglected, rejected and devalued by his wife.

"I tried to verbalize my hurt and pain from her behavior," he told jurors. "I felt like I was hitting a thick stone wall."...

"She's headless and dead, but I'M the victim."

Like I said, shameless.

Mo and his "selfish, demanding, jealous and rage-fueled" wife, prior to her decapitation

“As we commemorate the solemn anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, we remember the countless people, including six million Jewish men, women, and children who were murdered by the Nazis.

“The Holocaust was not just a crime against a specific group of people, it was also a crime against all of humanity; a betrayal of the most fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

“While we cannot begin to understand the suffering endured by those who lived and those who died in the dark days of the Holocaust, it is our duty to keep their memory alive.

“As we remember and mourn those who lost their lives more than six decades ago, we must also remember the lessons learned from the Holocaust, and we must honour the legacy of those who survived.”

“Today marks an occasion for solemn observance here in Canada, as we reflect upon the Shoah and the six million Jewish men, women and children lost to this crime against humanity, and the great suffering and loss from this genocide we are still trying to come to terms with in our time.

“The liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, which occurred on this day, was an ultimate victory against the evils of the Nazi regime and the deep roots of anti-Semitism which lay in its repellent vision of humanity.

“We must remain vigilant in our opposition to the anti-Semitism which continues to this day and hold fast to our commitment to human rights, our fundamental belief in the sanctity of religious freedoms, and the values of mutual respect and tolerance all Canadians share...

Today marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi death camps. This solemn anniversary was declared International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations just a few years ago, and gives us an opportunity honour the memory of Holocaust victims.

We can never forget the hatred that destroyed an entire generation, as those that survived were forced to live with the memory of the evil they had encountered.

Today is a day of remembrance, but we cannot forget that intolerance still exists around the world today and there is much work to be done.

That's a pretty neat trick, Jacko--remembering the Holocaust without ever once mentioning the Jews. ("An entire generation" destroyed, eh? What a hollow and generic way to put it.) No doubt your many Muslim fans (the Muslim minority having overtaken the Jewish one in numbers and growing e'er larger by the day) would approve.

Brutal, bloody, ugly--a video of a couple being stoned to death in Afghanistan (where, despite the presence on the ground of kafir soldiers lo these many, many years, sharia still reigns supreme). I draw it to your attention but warn you that it is graphic and extremely disturbing.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

George Soros--you know, the gazillionaire who abominates Israel and funds practically every nutty, bizarro, loony lefty, anti-Zionist cause around? Unlike Glenn Beck, who is a staunch and vocal supporter of the Jewish State.

These idiot rabbis are backing the wrong horse, plain and simple--so shame on them.

French intellectual Pascal Bruckner offers a crash course in the faux fear here:

The term "Islamophobia" serves a number of functions: it denies the reality of an Islamic offensive in Europe all the better to justify it; it attacks secularism by equating it with fundamentalism. Above all, however, it wants to silence all those Muslims who question the Koran, who demand equality of the sexes, who claim the right to renounce religion, and who want to practice their faith freely and without submitting to the dictates of the bearded and doctrinaire. It follows that young girls are stigmatised for not wearing the veil, as are French, German or English citizens of Maghribi, Turkish, African or Algerian origin who demand the right to religious indifference, the right not to believe in God, the right not to fast during Ramadan. Fingers are pointed at these renegades, they are delivered up to the wrath of their religions communities in order to quash all hope of change among the followers of the Prophet.

On a global scale, we are abetting the construction of a new thought crime, one which is strongly reminiscent of the way the Soviet Union dealt with the "enemies of the people". And our media and politicians are giving it their blessing. Did not the French president himself, never one to miss a blunder - not compare Islamophobia with Antisemitism? A tragic error. Racism attacks people for what they are: black, Arab, Jewish, white. The critical mind on the other hand undermines revealed truths and subjects the scriptures to exegesis and transformation. To confuse the two is to shift religious questions from an intellectual to a judicial level. Every objection, every joke becomes a crime.

The desecration of graves or of places of worship is naturally a matter for the courts. In France, for the most part it is Christian graveyards or churches that are affected. Let us not forget that today, of all the monotheist religions, Christianity is the most persecuted – particularly in Islamic countries such Algeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey or Egypt. It is easier to be a Muslim in London, New York or Paris than a Protestant or Catholic in the Middle East or North Africa. But the term "Christianophobia" does not function – and that's a good thing. There are words which taint language, which obscure meaning. "Islamophobia" is one of the words that we urgently need to delete from our vocabulary.

Alas, that's not going to happen. Not while the word is so effective in silencing "blasphemers," i.e. critics of the violent, supremacist, totalitarian aspects of Islam.

until specific cuts are made in the film, which include cutting all the dialogues and references made to the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, any mentions of Islamic beards and attire, swearing and the term “lesbian”. It is said that if the above mentioned bits are chopped, the film will get permission to be screened with an adults only 18+ rating.

Of course, once all that stuff gets excised, the movie runs a scant 15 minutes. (Just kidding. I don't know how long it runs with all the juicy bits removed.)

Update:Here's the official Slackistan website. (Wouldn't it be cool if from now on we called slackers "slackistanis?")

And for why? For Israel, a festering pustule not the size of a South African game park, squatting in the Middle East. The creation of this nuclear-powered Frankenstein State and the determination to force it on Arabs will turn out to be America and Britain's biggest ever mistake.

Such a way with words, that chick has. Why, it calls to mind the passion and eloquence of Herr Adolf Hitler.

Some enchanted Yvonne,You can hear the Jew-hate,You can hear the Jew-hateAbout a small "pustule".And somehow you know,You know even thenShe sounds so incredibly Hitlerian...Once you have heard her Have to go and puke.Once you have heard herHave...to...go...and...puke.

Make no mistake, the NGO industry has betrayed the values embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s become an accomplice to evil. The new humanitarian industry is rooted in the equality of humankind to the exclusion of the Jew...

For more info, consult NGO Monitor, which keeps tabs on the industry's dirty work.

The Muslim population is booming, and you know what that means. More feats of Judenhass and concessions to sharia? Well, yes, but you're unlikely to hear about any of that. What you will hear (to get you to swallow the unpalatable sans grumble) is how Muslims are likely to suffer from the boom.From the Globe and Mail:

The Muslim population of Canada will nearly triple over the next 20 years, according to a new study of global demographic trends focusing on the faith.

The number of Canadians who identify themselves as Muslim will reach 2.7 million by 2030, up from approximately 940,000 today, and will make up 6.6 per cent of the total population.

The projections were released Thursday by the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion & Public Life, the first in a series of population projections of major world religions.

Around the world, the Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35 per cent, rising to 2.2 billion by 2030 and increasing at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population.

Wahida Valiante, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said she is concerned that the numbers will be used by some to stoke the flames of anti-Islamic rhetoric...

Don't worry, Wahida, dear. We're so multibleepingcultural that we're far more concerned about curbing our own "bigotry" than we are about the impact of the mushrooming "numbers" of Muslim bigots (who are anti-Jew, anti-kafir, anti-Israel and anti-West): didn't you see that shiny new wheely thing in Halifax harbour which shows how "racism" leads inevitably and inexorably to "xenophobia"?

We promote immigration without addressing the bigotries and potential jihadi mindset of some of those entering our country. Some wish to lull us into a utopian vision that does not reflect reality and could become a danger. We need to celebrate and promote our own Canadian values and teach others that being Canadian — by which I mean Canadian first and foremost — is just as important as having them share with us their history, culture and religion.

He said the TSA plans to introduce a new version of its controversial body imaging scanners. Instead of generating a fuzzy view of a passenger's entire body, the new ones will create a generic image that highlights any suspicious items with a rectangle.

Ontario hospitals are so strapped for funds that some hospital executives have been forced to look elsewhere for funding. To Kuwait, for example. From the Globe and Mail:

A group of Canadian hospital executives is travelling to the Middle East in search of a solution to one of health care’s most vexing problems: how to find new sources of revenue when patient costs are straining the system.

Most of the officials on this week’s trip are looking to reach deals with the foreign governments to provide consulting services and training in exchange for cash to reinvest in their own facilities back home. However, a contentious deal that Toronto’s University Health Network reached last year with Kuwait is taking it one step further, allowing a small number of Kuwaiti patients to come here for complex cancer care.

UHN president and chief executive officer Bob Bell said the $75-million, five-year agreement, most of which involves consulting, is a way to reinvest in the health-care system and provide more funds for research, equipment and care at the three downtown Toronto hospitals that make up the network.

But other hospitals are shying away from offering to make treatment part of the package: They don’t like the optics of providing care to wealthy foreign patients when their institutions are struggling with lengthy queues.

No Kuwaitis have yet been treated here, Dr. Bell said in an interview, and a limited number will be treated, which he described as in the “tens of patients.”

“If we provide treatment to one foreign patient, our goal would be to provide treatment to at least two if not three Ontarians based on revenue from that,” Dr. Bell said. “It’s a sensitive issue, obviously, for Ontarians. They don’t want to think that anybody is ever going to displaced by an international patient.”...

Gee, ya think?

To recap: there was no cash in (the large downtown Toronto) hospital kitty for my colonoscopy (which had been booked a year in advance). However, if someone from Kuwait wants to come here for cancer care pronto, he/she can jump to the head of the line.

How bonkers is that?

Update: My letter:

Let me get this straight: a wealthy Kuwaiti is to be allowed to jump the queue and receive medical care in Ontario, but Ontarians who would like to pay extra to be able to do the same thing are not allowed to do so?

Are we so obsessed with keeping the system "fair" that we are unable to see the inconsistency, not to mention the sheer lunacy, in such an arrangement?

Here's a thought: How about affording Ontarians the same opportunities as Kuwaitis, thereby obviating the need for Ontario hospital executives to travel all the way to Kuwait, of all places, to drum up business?

1 It is the fault of our parents. When we were children, our parents discouraged us from showing our genitals at a certain point, and made us uncomfortable with running around naked. "That's parental teaching and we never quite overcome it," said Dr. Ferris.

2 Nudity causes conflicted feelings. "At one level we want to accept it, and at another level we want to condemn it," Dr. Ferris said. "When we have conflicting feelings inside us, that causes stress that leads to anxiety."

3 Nudity forces us to make the connection between nudity and sex. Dr. Ferris said young children will not feel the least bit self-conscious at a nude beach or a nudist colony. But when they hit their teenage years, suddenly it becomes very weird. "At that point the nude other person can potentially provoke feelings. And we become anxious because we're pushing down our feelings. What makes us anxious is not the feeling of attraction but trying to get rid of the feelings. It has little to do with morality."

Me, I'm no psychologist, but I don't think that 'splains it. From my own experience of seeing nekkid people of both genders on beaches in Europe, I think it's really a question of aesthetics. That is, there is nothing visually appealing--and plenty that's visually assaultive (their nekkidness being literally "in your face")--about the sight of hefty, bare-assed, past their best-before date folks who are over-inflated in some bodily regions and grossly deflated in others.

Simple as that, really.

And I don't know about you but I have never--no, not even once--made the connection between nudity and sex when encountering ugly naked people on the beach. If anything, the sight acts as the equivalent of a cold shower.

"Ignatieff evolving into a politician" reads the headline above a John Ivison piece in the National Post. That assertion immediately brought to mind a line of dialogue I've always remembered. It's from an old Hill Street Blues episode and it goes like this: "Some of us evolve. Others of us mutate."

I have no problem memorializing the Holocaust. I do, however, have a big problem when the specificity of the Holocaust becomes subsumed into some squishy, "universal," Kumbaya-ish message about generalized hatred against generalized people. I think the Holocaust must be remembered as something that happened to the Jews at a specific time in history for very specific reasons, ones which cannot be equated with what happened in, say, Rwanda or Sudan. If we fail to emphasize the Holocaust's uniquely Jewish nature, the point we are trying to make about it--that it should serve as a warning to mankind to recognize when another Shoah is looming and do its utmost to put the brakes on it--will ultimately be lost.

But, hey, that's just me. And here in Canada, my home and native land, that way of looking at things puts me woefully out of step with those who speak for the Jewish community. For not only are they eager to universalize the Holocaust by having it take its place in the pantheon of genocides, they are so clueless, so hopelessly "multicultural," that they would freight it "human rights" baggage. As if those six million did not die in vain; as if they died so that our planet's and our country's cockamamie "human rights" apparatus could live.

This morning a friend send me a Ceej communique--a reprint of an editorial that appeared in the Halifax paper--in which the outfit pats itself furiously on the back for getting the feds to pony up big bucks (500 Gs, I believe) for a memorial to the St. Louis Jews. In case you haven't seen it, it looks like this and is described thus:

The gears turning on the memorial, called Wheels of Conscience, illustrate how hatred can beget racism, then xenophobia, and then widespread anti-Semitism.

As I commented to my friend, that is utter bollocks, a gross misunderstanding/over-simplification of Judenhass and why the Holocaust occurred. Framing it in this way will do nothing to save the Jews of today from another maelstrom and, in a horrible irony, will ensure that we here in Canada import tons more Jew-hate from the Arab/Muslim world (because to deny these poor people entry--as the Jews of the St. Louis were denied entry--would mean that we're the "racists" and "xenophobes").

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

My son, who's in Grade 7, is learning about fables. This is one of the ones he had to read and answer questions about:

The Mouse, the Frog, and the Hawk

A Mouse who always lived on the land, by an unlucky chance formed an intimate acquaintance with a Frog, who lived for the most part in the water. The Frog, one day intent on mischief, bound the foot of the Mouse tightly to his own. Thus joined together, the Frog first of all led his friend the Mouse to the meadow where they were accustomed to find their food. After this, he gradually led him towards the pool in which he lived, until reaching the very brink, he suddenly jumped in, dragging the Mouse with him. The Frog enjoyed the water amazingly, and swam croaking about, as if he had done a good deed. The unhappy Mouse was soon suffocated by the water, and his dead body floated about on the surface, tied to the foot of the Frog. A Hawk observed it, and, pouncing upon it with his talons, carried it aloft. The Frog, being still fastened to the leg of the Mouse, was also carried off a prisoner, and was eaten by the Hawk.

Isn't that a delightful tale? And so full of important "moral" lessons, too. Were you to ask me what its moral was, I might reply it's that animals should shun inter-species friendships, since look where they ultimately lead. (I'm sure, in excruciatingly "multicultural" Ontario classrooms, that is most definitely not the teachable moment the curriculum-devisers had in mind.)

Apparently, though, the real lesson is: "Harm hatch, harm catch." Meaning that if you're a dickhead to your friends--like the frog is to the mouse--you're going to get your comeuppance from an animal that's bigger and stronger than you.

Or something like that.

I won't share all my son's responses to the questions he was asked (some of which made me laugh as loud and as long as I did upon reading the "animal manslaughter (so to speak)" tale. I will merely share one of them. When asked for a word to describe the mouse, my son wrote, "The word I would use to describe the mouse is 'dumb.'"

File this one under "He Who Laughs Last...": Mark Harding reminds me that Mohammed Ashraf, the ISNA Canada chief whose allegedly shady financial finagling have recently come to light, is the same dude who took it upon himself to "re-educate" Harding about Islam's teachings vis-a-vis believers and kafirs. Harding had been been send by a judge to ISNA Canada to perform menial office tasks--licking envelopes and the like--as part of the community service he had to do following a conviction for "hate speech" against Muslims. (Really, the prescient Harding had been warning people pre-9/11 of the possibility of impending attacks in North America by violent jihadis--so obviously remote a possibility in those blissfully ignorant times that what else could it be but "hate speech"?)

Continuing with the "last laugh" theme: if and when Ashraf has to perform community service, the judge should send him to do menial office tasks at, say, the church Harding attends, or at AISH.

Of all the bruited falsehoods aimed at delegitimizing the Jewish claim to Israel (and legitimizing the Arab one), the one about Arabs living in Israel "from time immemorial" (the title of a book that proves the falsity of the claim) is arguably the one with most traction. Here it is, for example in a piece in the Guardian about the Palestinian Papers leaked by Al Jazeera:

Palestinians have expressed shock and dismay at the US suggestion to settle Palestinian refugees in Argentina and Chile rather than let them return to ancestralland in Israel.

In fact, many of their "ancestors" arrived sometime in the 20th Century, because there were jobs to be had once the Jews got the place up and running. In that case, I guess "the land" could be considered "ancestral" in the "my granddad/great-granddad from Syria/Jordan/Lebanon etc. worked there in the 1920s" sense, but not in the Old Testament "Hashem led the Jewish people out of Egypt to the Promised Land" sense.

In other words, our claim predates yours, Arabs, so you have no "right" to "return" and transform the Jews' ancient, ancestral land into another failed Arab state, another member of the modern-day caliphate.

The "right" to flap their kit and caboodles at the unsuspecting chick manning the drive-through window at Tim Horton's, for instance. From the National Post:

Canadian laws prohibiting public nudity are an infringement of constitutional rights, an Ontario court will hear Tuesday.

Prominent defence lawyer Clayton Ruby was expected to argue current laws in Canada prohibiting nudity in public places, or on private property exposed to public view, are overly broad, and should be struck down and the laws under the Criminal Code updated.

According to the Federation of Canadian Nudists, these laws are archaic because they define nudity as generally "indecent" and intended to cause "harm" to those who witness it.

The challenge is being launched on behalf of Mr. Ruby's client, Brian Coldin, a nudist resort operator in Bracebridge, a small cottage country town about two hours north of Toronto. Mr. Coldin, who has been arrested numerous times over the years for public nudity, was charged last year with five counts related to incidents between April 2008 and May 2009 near his resort and at both Tim Hortons and A&W drive-throughs.

The criminal trial, which began last fall, heard testimony from one of the restaurant workers who cried on the stand when she described how Mr. Coldin and two others drove up to the pick-up window completely nude. She said Mr. Coldin and the driver both pretended to reach for their imaginary wallets to pay for their orders, causing their genitals to sway back and forth...

Oh those nudists! Such jokers, no?

Update: I think oppressed nudists deserve their own space in Canada's "human rights" mausoleum, don't you. It could be called "the Nudity Zone." I have no doubt it would quickly become the edifice's most popular exhibit.

Hedegaard is being prosecuted in Denmark for violating that democracy's version of our Section 13--and the only people who seem to care about the abomination are "extreme right-wingers" (the convenient catch-all for anyone who opposes the onrush of Islam). Mark Steyn writes:

That is why the Lars Hedegaard trial matters. The zombie husks who lead the western world in twilight pass off their groveling prostration as a defense of “multicultural tolerance”. It's not. It’s the Pansy Left (in Orwell’s phrase) auditioning to be Islam’s lead prison bitch (that’s mine, not Orwell’s). In the same way that the left embarked on its long march through the institutions, so too has Islam. Its Gramscian subversion of transnational bodies, international finance, human rights institutions, the academy and the justice system is well advanced.

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Scaramouche is my nom de Web. My real name is Mindy G. Alter, and I like to think of myself as a free speecher with a sense of humour. My bailiwick: fighting on behalf of all the good things that free speech helps safeguard, and doing my utmost to highlight the malevolence and imbicilities of those who oppose freedom, whomever they may be.